Howl's Moving Castle: On to Better Times
by milky501
Summary: Howl has been acting strangely - going off early in the mornings, coming home late at night. After three days of avoiding Sophie, however, he returns home one night and declares his utmost love for her. A confused Sophie decides to confront Howl
1. Out of the Blue

Disclaimer: The characters in this story were created by Diana Wynne Jones/Hayao Miyazaki. This is pure FanFic.

Head bent, hair shaggy, Howl stood at the doorway.

"Howl?" Sophie voiced with concern, as Howl was not moving at all. Only after a few moments did Howl start shuffling towards her, still in the same posture, with his head hanging down.

"Howl, are you feeling fine?" There was no response from him, but after a few seconds he was leaning on her in a sudden lurch. Staggering beneath his weight, Sophie ended up leaning against the wall.

"Howl, what is wrong with you?" her voice grew with alarm.

"Oh, Sophie, you're so beautiful," Howl said softly. As Howl took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, her breath caught, for even in Howl's seemingly disheveled state, he still looked alarmingly dashing, and his bright blue eyes which never seemed to pale always had a certain spark in them. Silently, she wondered if his eyes were ever used to put innocent girls under a spell. But then, spell or no spell, they were electrifying enough to make one fall head over heels for him.

Her attention was brought back to the situation as Howl proclaimed, with more vigour in his voice, "Sophie, know that I would follow you to the end of the earth and never look back, even if…even if it means I have to give up this whole castle. Not that it's in a very good condition, anyway." He threw up his hands and his head rolled back in laughter.

By now, Sophie was feeling quite dizzy. She did not know what to make out of the whole situation. No one had said such sweet nothings to her before, but Howl acting this way was completely out of the ordinary. For lack of a better response, she pushed him off, saying, "Howl, you're drunk! Calcifer, could you prepare a warm bath for him please?"

"Ha! Drunk? How could the great wizard be?" Howl retaliated.

Sophie wanted to go to her own room to marshal her thoughts, so she simply ignored this comment, but just as she turned to go, a hand caught her wrist.

"Sophie, don't go." It was almost a whisper, a desperate plea coming from the master of the castle. And there were his eyes again, expressing every sorrowful emotion that appealed to Sophie's heart to listen to him.

"Howl, I…" Sophie started. But barely after that, Howl had closed the distance between them in one swift motion and his strong, manly hands now cupped her petite face. She had been looking down in confusion and anxiety, but he gently tilted her head up. He was now looking intently into her eyes, with even more startling intensity than before. Her breath caught once again, and she stopped mid-sentence. Howl took his chance, and bent his head down to hers.

Their lips met, and Sophie reeled back with the force, but strong arms caught her from behind. Howl's hands captured her waist, sending a slight tingle through her back, and slowly helped push her back towards him. Sophie was shocked at the feelings that were running through her, but oh, they were so pleasurable, she was enjoying every moment of it. Nonetheless, though her heart told her not to stop, her head warned her of how strangely Howl was acting. He may have declared his utmost love for her, but he was not in a normal condition and his words could not be absolutely trusted. With inner regret, she pushed him away with considerable force.

"Howl! I do think you need a bath. Well, see you, then." And before another word could escape Howl's lips, she ran up the stairs and shut herself in her room, leaving a sad Howl by the stair.

Sophie sat on her bed, her legs folded up, her arms wrapped around them and her chin resting on her knees. She rocked herself back and forth, as she processed the day's events in her head.

Things weren't right. For the past few days, Howl had seemed to be avoiding her. Starting one morning a few days back, Howl had gotten up earlier than usual, and without saying much, he'd grabbed an orange and headed for the door instead of sitting at the table to have breakfast. When Sophie had protested, he merely muttered something about having things to do and left the castle. Then, he had come back so late, with no explanation once again. The same pattern repeated itself for about three days, with his hours away from home getting progressively longer. Then came that night.

What had come over Howl? Why was he avoiding her, then suddenly – Sophie blushed as she thought about it – going crazy over her? A restless night ensued, and Sophie decided that the only thing to do was to simply confront Howl and demand an explanation the next morning, to iron out all the issues that were bothering him.


	2. A Little Happiness

Disclaimer: The characters in this story were created by Diana Wynne Jones/Hayao Miyazaki. This is pure FanFic.

"_Sophie, please don't go." Howl's plea was desperate, filled with anguish and complete sorrow, yet Sophie's mind was made up._

"_Howl, I cannot stay." Sophie got up from her chair and walked towards the door._

"_Just an explanation, no, just one statement, won't you tell me why?" Howl was at his knees in hand-wringing despair._

_Sophie's hand was on the doorknob._

_Howl rushed to the door and placed both arms around Sophie's waist, hugging her tight, not wanting to let her go. He closed his eyes. Suddenly, Sophie had somehow come free of his arms and was out of the door. When he opened his eyes, all he could see was the colour dial spinning, spinning, in a whirl of colours…_

Howl awoke with a start. The same old dream that had been haunting him for the past three nights was back again. Sophie was leaving, and he didn't understand why. On hindsight, avoiding her on the first day after the dream had occurred was stupid, actually. He should have treasured her even more in days to come. He hadn't known what would have happened if he had continued that way, until he met his special guide the day before.

Feeling slightly cheery, Howl made his way to the bathroom. After brushing his teeth, as he wiped his mouth dry, his lips had a tingling sensation. It felt familiar, but he couldn't quite place the feeling. Then it hit him. He sure hoped Sophie's view of him hadn't changed because of what had happened the previous night. But of course it did, logically. And Sophie was very logical. The more Howl thought about it, the more anxious he got, anxious enough to make him halt his daily long bathroom activities to go look for Sophie. As he was going out of the room, he stopped short. What if…she already left? This troubling thought filled his mind and his heartbeat almost stopped at the silence in the castle, but his saviour was ironically Sophie, for she walked out of her room the next instant.

Sophie let out a little gasp. She hadn't expected Howl to be coming out of his room so fast. Not being able to sleep much, she had heard Howl waking up, but expected him to be in his bathroom still. Goodness knows doing what. Bringing her mind back to the present moment, she remembered what she had set out to do. This was no easy topic to breach, and there were his blue eyes staring intently at her again…but she had to find out what she meant to find out.

"All I want to know is, what happened last night," Sophie started.

"Everything I said last night was true. I meant every word of it," Howl's face had never been so serious. Then he added softly, "And every feeling, too."

Sophie's face didn't look like she believed him, so he tried again. "Sophie, I'm sorry if I scared you last night…"

"Stop. I don't want this," Sophie cut him off.

Howl panicked. "Then tell me what you wa…"

"This," was all the warning Sophie gave him, before she brought her lips to his, pushing him towards the bed, and when Howl's knees reached the bed, she half-leapt onto him, causing them both to land squarely on the mattress.

"Woah, Sophie," Howl was shocked but grinning as he pulled away from Sophie. Then, in a more mischievous tone, "Think you're the only one who can pull off surprises?" He flipped them both over, so that he pinned her to the bed, but not putting any pressure on her.

"No…but I like your surprises," Sophie said coyly.

Howl gazed at her fondly and couldn't resist lowering his head once again, pulling them both into oblivion.

Sweet joy was interrupted by a nonetheless sweet voice from downstairs. "Howl? Sophie? Are you there? It's quite late and…Calcifer and I were starting to get worried."

Though Howl felt like strangling Markl at that instant, he called, "It's alright, Markl. Sophie and I are just…playing. We'll be down in a moment." A loud snort which seemingly came from Calcifer was emitted from the first floor.

"I'm sorry to end this so soon, Sophie, but looks like we have other needs to tend to," Howl said regretfully. Getting off the bed reluctantly, he offered his hand to Sophie.

"Howl Jenkins, don't think you can get away with this by being chivalrous. You still owe me an explanation for your strange behaviour over the past three days," Sophie said, before placing her petite hand in his.

"I was about to explain, but you pounced on me!" Howl retorted.

"I pounced on you? You should have seen yourself last night!" Sophie was indignant.

They bickered their way down to a hungry Markl and disgusted Calcifer.

"How could you be playing in the morning, and sacrificing Markl's and my breakfast at that too?"

"Yeah, I'm so hungry. But can I join in your game the next time?" Markl looked up at Sophie with puppy eyes.

"Markl, I already told you, the game's not for you!" Calcifer shot.

Sophie looked at Howl and smiled. She was still unused to such passionate exchanges between them, and two of these exchanges had occurred within less than a span of 12 hours, but at least Howl was still in the castle beside her in the late morning, with Markl and Calcifer, her favourite people – or demons – in the world. She still had much finding out to do, but she decided to savour the moment, at least while she could.


End file.
